Working from home is without question where we are headed in the future. It’s now been proven that most of us can do this, and quite successfully give the technologies at our disposal!
Employers have seen many cost saving benefits and well as many productivity improvements as a result of this phenomenon.
However:
- Employees that have been required to work from home these past few years have already, and are continuously incurring, additional costs for this “privilege”.
- Most employers only envisaged their employees to fully return in early to mid 2021 – so plans were put in place to manage this over the medium term as the employee would still be incurring costs (and whilst the employer was also saving on costs). Current trends show that by mutual agreement, many employees are still working from home for large periods in the month.
- As working from home will become the “new norm” for most individuals, employees and employers need to understand the tax implications – i.e. when, how and more specifically, what items / costs qualify as deductible expenses.
There have also been some positives that have come out of this “new norm”:
- Employees have mainly been more productive – i.e. less time in traffic and the ability to work in a much better and often less stressful environment!
- Employers have benefitted from greatly reduced travel costs, operational costs, technology costs, etc.
- Employees are not just reaping the financial rewards but there are many health benefits as well.